1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-pressure processing apparatus for and a high-pressure processing method of a predetermined surface treatment of a surface of an article-to-be-processed with a processing fluid which may be a high-pressure fluid or a mixture of a high-pressure fluid and a chemical agent and which is brought into contact with the surface of the article-to-be-processed. The articles-to-be-processed include various types of substrates (hereinafter referred to simply as “substrate(s)”) such as semiconductor wafers, glass substrates for photomask, glass substrates for liquid crystal display, glass substrates for plasma display and optical disk substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patterning using a resist in a semiconductor manufacturing process necessitates a cleaning step of removing from a substrate unwanted matters and contaminants such as a resist which is not needed any more after forming a pattern, an etching polymer which builds up during etching and stays on the substrate, etc. Noting this, such a high-pressure processing apparatus is known which cleans the substrate, using a mixture of a high-pressure fluid and a chemical agent as a processing fluid which is brought into contact with a surface of the substrate.
In the high-pressure processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2002-313764 for instance, a substrate is cleaned, with a processing fluid, i.e., a mixture of a high-pressure fluid and a plurality of chemical agents supplied to a processing chamber in which the substrate has been set. More particularly, this high-pressure processing apparatus comprises high-pressure fluid supplying means which supplies the high-pressure fluid to the processing chamber, first chemical agent supplying means which supplies a first chemical agent to the processing chamber, and second chemical agent supplying means which supplies a second chemical agent to the processing chamber. For pressure feeding of the high-pressure fluid, the chemical agents and the like to the processing chamber, a pressure-feed pump (high-pressure pump) is disposed to each one of these supplying means.